***Official India in New Zealand***

[cowboysfan]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket...duggery-denied

Test pitch switch skulduggery denied

Central Districts chief executive Blair Furlong denies there is any skulduggery behind a last-minute change to the pitch for the second test against India starting in Napier on Thursday.

A well-grassed pitch to the side of the original strip will now be used, but Furlong said the change had been made in the best interests of the game and was not a desperate attempt to doctor conditions to suit the home side. The switch will have the Indians in a frenzy after their horrible experiences on the 2002-03 tour but Furlong said everything was above board.

He said groundsman Phil Stoyanoff was unhappy with the patchy nature of the grass and had called in New Zealand Cricket turf manager Jared Carter for a second opinion. Furlong said Carter felt the strip was playable but Stoyanoff felt aesthetically it was not a good look.

"It's not a fungus, the grass is just very patchy and the pitch we are now doing has a more even coverage of grass," Furlong said.

"It will be a good pitch, it will do something at the start and then flatten out. It certainly won't be a greentop, we don't want a two-day test."

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[Flem274*]

If they can score runs in our domestic comp where pitches seam almost square, they can score runs on a greentop in international cricket.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Unless most bowlers in NZ domestic cricket are of the quality of Zaheer and Sharma (which I doubt) then they'll be exposed even more so.

 

[oitoitoi]

If they can score runs in our domestic comp where pitches seam almost square, they can score runs on a greentop in international cricket.

Really don't get your logic there mate...

 

[Flem274*]

Unless most bowlers in NZ domestic cricket are of the quality of Zaheer and Sharma (which I doubt) then they'll be exposed even more so.

The decwnt to poor quality of domestic bowlers is negated a lot by the pitches. Apart from Napier and State Highway One Eden Park, the pitches very rarely favour the batsmen. Its completely opposite. In fact pitches contribute to the reason why Joe Yovich is FC standard, and why Andre Adams looks 150kmh.

 

[Flem274*]

Really don't get your logic there mate...

The pitches here in domestic cricket are quite often nasty (though in the last couple of years they have been getting flatter). If you can score a century on a domestic A Bomb/greentop, you can score at least half the amount of runs in internationals surely.

 

[ret]

Don't really care how the pitch is as I believe that India will play well .... Sehwag didn't get many in the last game so he will be looking to make up .... I hope that the pacers bowl with more fire

Hoping for an improved performance from NZ

 

[NZTailender]

Ive personally never rated Mills as a test match option. Occassionally he is effective with the new ball but that is a rareity. He bowls to many four balls for my liking and gets most of his ODI wickets through batsmen errors which are not as common in tests. As a one day bowler he is good because he can bowl a new ball spell and a death spell which both suit him but when it comes to digging in with an old ball with not much to offer for the bowlers, he is just to unpenetrative for mine.

Did you think that up yourself, or did you copy and paste it from the '5 Standard and Unimaginative Excuses As To Why A Bowler Sucks' handbook? Heard it so many times in regards to so many bowlers from fair-weather fans who jump ship at the first sign of bad tidings.

 

[Prince EWS]

The pitches here in domestic cricket are quite often nasty (though in the last couple of years they have been getting flatter). If you can score a century on a domestic A Bomb/greentop, you can score at least half the amount of runs in internationals surely.

Matthew Bell says hi BTW.

 

[Pratters]

I think the Kiwis shud take the chance.. At the moment, it is 50-50 on a green top for them but on a flat track, it is looking more like 90-10 India.. So better chance a green top, IMHO... They may still win.. The Indian boys have got talent but I am not sure if they have the ticker to guts it out on such tracks.. Sachin, Dravid and Laxman are the 3 I will hope on and I don't think Rahul is in good enough form and Laxman neither.. so it could be a very good thing for NZ...

Agree with the above except Dravid not being in form. He is regaining lost form where I am concerned.

Bring on the green tops for a more even contest. We need to win on every kind of pitch to be called a top side.

 

[NZTailender]

Matthew Bell says hi BTW.

Is currently hanging out with Sincas iirc.

 

[Flem274*]

Matthew Bell says hi BTW.

Openers in NZ are just wierd and apart from Guptill and maybe How, rubbish.

Would have preffered if Bell had said "Hi, I have now introduced some semblence of footwork into my game to compliment my admittedly pretty good eye."

Not sure what you're getting at with your Bell thing btw. He's no where near the best batsman in domestic cricket, Fulton or Sinclair are the epicfails.

 

[straw man]

Some fantastic overreactions towards Mills in this thread. Suddenly he is completely rubbish, when not a long time ago he was our Number 1 Test seamer. He's in a bad run of form, but we all know (well those that are sane) that in good form Mills can be effective and dangerous.

Don't think Mills has ever been our number 1 test seamer - for the recent past Martin would have been the first name on paper, and then as soon as he dropped away O'Brien picked that title up.

 

[straw man]

Agree that NZ have a better chance on a regular greentop - on a greentop I'd still back us to scrape our way through to 180-250 the majority of the time, probably on the back of one top-order contribution and some runs from Vettori, McCullum etc.

That might be enough if the NZ seamers can knock over Tendulkar, Dravid etc early, as I can't imagine the Indian lower order would offer that much resistance on such a wicket (although if I remember rightly Zaheer was pretty much India's second best batsman the last time India toured).

 

[NZTailender]

Don't think Mills has ever been our number 1 test seamer - for the recent past Martin would have been the first name on paper, and then as soon as he dropped away O'Brien picked that title up.

I think a lot of people think of Martin as being our #1 because he's been in the side and around for so long that he must be the best, when really he's a pretty darn good workhorse who has managed to stay relatively free of injury, while the rest of the attack chops and changes due to form or injury (and perhaps even ICL bans).

In Mills first 4 Tests he was fairly ordinary taking just 3 wickets. He was dropped IIRC, then recalled in 2006 against the West Indies and between then and now he has taken 41 wickets @ 28.78, including the 2.33 series he's been out of form in (Bang, WI and current Indian).

Certainly in my mind he was our best bowler in the period between West Indies in 2006 and England in England last year.

O'Brien has taken over now though, no question.

 

[Nutter]

Mills would be a lot better if he could maintain his accuracy while bowling at somewhere near O'Brien's pace, rather than the high 120's to low 130's. He bowls a lot of good balls that batsmen have too much time to react to.

 

[Flem274*]

He could lose his swing though (isn't there some theory that the slower you bowl the more time the ball has to swing, hence really quick bowlers are really dangerous because the ball swings late?) if he ramps up his pace, not to mention his accuracy.

Personally think Franklin has always had the wood over Mills for the number 1 seamer spot. NZT is right about Martin.

 

[SJS]

He could lose his swing though (isn't there some theory that the slower you bowl the more time the ball has to swing, hence really quick bowlers are really dangerous because the ball swings late?) if he ramps up his pace, not to mention his accuracy.

Personally think Franklin has always had the wood over Mills for the number 1 seamer spot. NZT is right about Martin.

You dont lose your swing if you bowl slower, you lose late swing. The ball may swing almost from the time it leaves the hand in whats called a banana swing. The ball starts swinging (in the case of fast bowlers) as it starts slowing down with wind resistance.

 

[Flem274*]

You dont lose your swing if you bowl slower, you lose late swing. The ball may swing almost from the time it leaves the hand in whats called a banana swing. The ball starts swinging (in the case of fast bowlers) as it starts slowing down with wind resistance.

Sorry, meant bowl faster.

 

[SJS]

Sorry, meant bowl faster.

Okay.

But very few bowlers bowl so fast as to not be able to swing at least at the very end of the flight of the ball (which is why they need to pitch up to make it swing) and if it does, they can be lethal like Waqar at his fastest was.

You need to get your grip and action right of course.